Garen Norwitch
Garen Norwitch is the son of Glinda the Good Witch from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. He was introduced in 2016. Garen transferred from Emerald City Academy to Ever After High after hearing that Celadon West, the antagonist of his story, had begun attending school there. After West's ill-fated attempt at replicating Raven Queen's Legacy Day stunt (and subsequent expulsion), Garen is deeply concerned that he might never come back to Oz and sign their own school storybook, thereby dooming the entire Ozian story and way of life. As the deeply Royal son of the Good Witch, Garen has taken it upon himself to convince West to sign, whatever it might take. Character Personality As the first-born of the Norwitch family, there is a weighty destiny placed upon Garen. All of Oz expects him to be a great, benevolent defender of small-folk across the land, a fair-handed ruler of the North, and a general all-around helpful tour guide for lost visitors whose houses crash on top of evil witches. Garen is determined not to let them down. Extremely obstinate, once he gets an idea into his mind, he refuses to let it go. He remains stalwart in his beliefs, even when it is a great inconvenience for him to do so. It is his determination to ensure the Wizard of Oz story comes to pass that drives him halfway across the continent to Ever After High, his sights set on convincing a rebel to sign their school storybook. It is, however, also his stubbornness that drives him to lug around his family's heirloom Bubble Staff-- an exceedingly heavy wand roughly ten feet in length, utterly indestructible and very cumbersome to carry. He views it as his burden to bear-- perhaps, in part, an extended metaphor for the pressing weight of his heritage. Garen is cursed so that, unlike the heirs of the other three witches, he cannot cast magic-- much to his resentment. His only hope is that the Ozian Storybook will break his curse, due to the necessity of Glinda the Good Witch being, well, a witch. This is a source of severe anxiety for him, as he does not fill the requirements set out for him by fairytale design. In his single-minded pursuit of being an ideal Norwitch and fulfilling Oz's expectations, Garen can be close-minded, unduly harsh, and sometimes just plain irritating. Though he wants very badly to be able to protect Oz in every manner possible, Garen has certain misconceptions about magic's role in that part. He does not realize that there are some problems, particularly social problems, that cannot merely be fixed with the wave of a wand and some bubble charms. As someone with a comparatively privileged upbringing, Garen doesn't necessarily notice microaggressions made against other demographics, though he would be absolutely horrified if he knew such things existed. Though he has very strong belief in promoting the welfare and happiness of everyone in Oz, he may not always understand the deep-seated issues that lie beyond basic safety. Still, he has managed to find a way to make the most of his present abilities. Instead of using magic to accomplish tasks, Garen uses his Bubble Staff in a plethora of unique and useful ways, including hitting things (or people), lifting objects, holding doors open, and pole-vaulting. He has used it as a lightning rod, a bargepole, and, once, a toothpick. An inability to perform magic has made Garen extremely resourceful and capable of using whatever he happens to have on hand. Behaviors Garen has the tendency to plan things or have things planned for him by one of his many, many Norwich Council Committees as many as four years in advance-- including his birthday parties, his Legacy Day outfit, and even his dentist appointments. He will deny it to Lurline's fairyland and back, but he possesses a Pinterest board dedicated solely to his eventual future wedding, likely ten years or more down the line. It has over 200 pins (and counting). When things do not go according to plan, however, Garen is extremely capable of rolling with the punches. He has excellent creative problem-solving skills, and he is not above manual labor if it means getting his plans back on track. If placed in a situation deemed dangerous or threatening, Garen's first mode of defense is to place himself physically in-between the threatening object and any innocent bystanders nearby. He takes to heart the idea that the best defense is a good offense, but tends to use his agility and setting to his advantage just as much as he uses his strength. Very much a people's person, Garen enjoys public speaking and will take every opportunity possibly to make a motivational speech. Although this is handy at Track and Shield meets, most of the time, it only comes across as irritating. He is significantly worse at one-on-one discussion, and tends to have a difficult time breaching the stiffness of his polite formality. Garen also tends to defer to those with greater seniority or authority than himself when in group discussion. In order to maintain absolutely maximum approval in the public eye that is ever-watching, the majority of Garen's online interactions are actually handled by PR assistants that run the Official Garen Norwitch MirrorBlog and the Official Garen Norwitch Princetagram. All of his "pictures" and "selfies" are actually professionally taken by photographers bearing the seal of approval of the Norwich Council Committee on Public Relations. However, when commenting on something indirectly, using his boyfriend's keyboard (and likely his social media accounts, too), people tend to see the side of Garen Norwitch that's just a normal, slightly awkward teenager. ★ When hexting, Garen favors proper grammar and capitalization, though he has somewhat of a tendency to double up on or overuse punctuation............ particularly when he is unsure what to say. In order to distinguish himself from Kaolin (when Garen happens to be looking over his keyboard), Garen typically distinguishes himself by making his font light purple. He likes adding little stars to either end of his commentary. ★ Hobbies and Interests In spite of his magical limitations, Garen is quite the athlete, holding Emerald City Academy's Track and Shield record for pole-vaulting and the long jump. He also participates avidly in Tri-Castle-On games, though his best event is the mile run. Garen is an avid fan of Dragon Games and Bookball, though he plays neither. His favorite professional Bookball teams are the Ever After Legends and, of course, Oz's own Wizards (though he acknowledges that the latter team has made some terrible player trades in recent years). Though he professes to be bad at it, Garen enjoys tinkering with things similar to wind-up toys, alarm clocks, and IKEA-style furniture. He likes disassembling them to see how they work and putting them back together-- though, inevitably, there are always one or two extra pieces left over at the end. He is skilled at repairing things, and jury-rigging broken objects, although he stresses that his solutions are ultimately only temporary. Pet Peeves The quickest way to get under Garen's skin is to bring up his lack of magic in any way, shape, or form. No matter how politely you refer to it, he is always upset, even if he only shows it in the strain of his smile or the tenseness in his jaw. He doesn't like pity or disdain, but worst of all is when people seem to state it merely factually, like his inability to cast spells is part of him. Garen is also very sensitive to insinuations that he is somehow failing at making Oz a better place, though he does not become angry or irritated. This is the one variety of comment that can really dig at his self-esteem and make him feel like a hopeless failure. Though he typically recovers his confidence, such comments can really bother him for a long, long time-- sometimes, years. Appearance Garen is broad of shoulder and hip with a round face and a hard-set jaw. He is pretty close to average in height at roughly 5'9", and he bears himself upright with perfect posture. He is fairly muscular as a result of his various athletic endeavors, though he does not typically dress to display his musculature. His hair is a very bright strawberry-blonde and curls in ringlets, upon which a crown is perpetually perched. It is, in fact, a training-crown, as the immensely tall Crown of the Good Witch places a great deal of strain upon the neck, and he thought it was a good idea to at least practice having something on his head before inheriting that monstrosity of a headpiece. For reasons beyond our ken, Garen seems to carry the faint scent of powdered sugar wherever he may go. Theorists speculate that his clothing may actually be made of cotton candy, or perhaps that his hair is 31% bubble-gum. Most likely, however, it is probably a side effect of his mother's favorite laundry detergent. Fairy tale – The Wizard of Oz How the Story Goes Garen is from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum . Though his highly detailed pedigree goes all the way back to the original literary tale, he is also descended from the Good Witch of the North 18 generations descended from the first Good Witch Glinda (originally from the South), 81 generations preceding Garen himself. How does Garen come into it? As Ozian culture expanded and changed, the Good Witch's repertoire grew from merely giving directions to being Oz's Supreme Informer on All Things Magical, in addition to becoming one of the major defenders of that realm. However, due to a ritual cast by the very first Wicked Witch, the 100th descendant of the original Glinda was cursed to never be able to cast magic. Lady Glinda XLIV completed her fairytale with little fuss, and was supremely pleased to find that her half-sister, Dr. West (formerly the Wicked Witch) had survived the telling. Thus, with her guilt assuaged, she happily married the captain of Oz's royal guard and they together produced Garen, the 100th heir to the legacy of the Good Witch. Both very serious about their roles as the protectors of Oz, Garen's parents searched high and low for anything that could un-curse their son. They found none, save for one last, glimmering hope: the Storybook of Oz, which by nature required that the Good Witch possess magical prowess. It was decided that the power of the book had the strength to undo the curse that had been cast generations ago, and Garen has been counting down the days until the next retelling of the Wizard of Oz. ... that is, until Celadon West decided not to sign and refused to play his part, sending the entirety of Oz into mayhem and dismay, their story doomed to nevermore be told. Though he may not have his magic (yet), Garen Norwitch is determined to help his classmate and cousin see the light and return to Oz so that he can sign the storybook, so that the proud Ozian tradition can thrive ever after. Garen is a Royal, through and through-- and he will not let Oz fall. Outfits Garen has three simple tenets of fashion: #Wear your family's colors with pride, even if those colors are pastel pink and baby blue, #Whatever your mother tells you looks good probably looks better than anything you would pick, and #Never leave the house without your 10-foot family heirloom staff, whatever the case may be. They have thus far never steered him wrong. In general, Garen tends to wear cuts of clothing that lean towards the military style. He owns more slacks and corduroys than jeans. His closet is filled with button-ups, cravats, blazers, and vests; such casual objects as t-shirts or hoodies are very, very few and far between. Although Garen does not typically enjoy wearing petticoats and skirts, he will inform anyone who bothers to ask that he intends to follow his destiny down to the letter-- which includes the dress code. He has been measured and fitted for a "white gown that hangs in pleats from the shoulders" with "little stars that glisten in the sun like diamonds" sprinkled on, as well a "breathtakingly beautiful ball gown that gracefully trails behind him in a train as he walks... so authentic and sophisticated it could be worn by the wealthiest Queen." Indeed, if Garen had an SDCC, he would almost unquestionably be wearing a dress. No, he does not presently have those dresses in his dormitory closet, and no, he does not intend to wear them outside his destiny-ordained requirements. He finds them extremely uncomfortable, but as such detail is given to describing Glinda's dresses, he would feel as if he were going severely off-script by failing to wear them. Quite privately, he is a fan of camo-print and baggy pants, but as he considers those options highly inappropriate choices for an heir of the Norwitch legacy. He does own one pair of flannel pajama pants that are exceedingly camo-print and baggy... though, of course, he has elected to wear the camo in shades of pink, lest he ever be seen without his family's emblem colors. His jewelry is always very minimal, and rarely extends beyond a watch and his signet ring. Trivia *Garen's birthday is September 8. He is a Virgo. *In line with the North Witches being Dorothy's guide to Oz, Garen has a really good sense of direction. You might say that he always knows which way is due North. *Despite the fact that he dresses largely in pastels, Garen's dorm room and school supplies belie that he actually favors muted grays, tans, and navies. **Garen once wore a green t-shirt without his mom's permission. He felt so guilty about it that he called home and confessed immediately. *Much like the original Witches of Oz are based off cardinal directions, the generation of witches created by wiki user Bluebutterflychan are based off cardinal alignments in EAH. **Garen Norwitch is the Good Witch of the Royals, Celadon West is the Witch of the Rebels, Garnet East is the Wicked Witch of the Roybels, and Saphon Goodspell is the Witch of the Neutrals. Quotes Gallery Garen.png|Garen's character introduction page. Garen_Wave2.png|Wave 2 redesign. FullSizeRender (4).jpg|A name placard. kaoren_gondolas.jpg|Gondola date with Kaolin Alabaster is best date. (It's also one of the few dates where bringing along the Bubble Staff isn't awkward.) Garen DateNight1.png|Casual outfit for Date Night! He is dressed appropriately for going out on the Enchanted Lake on a rowboat, with a picnic at the ready for hitting land. Garen DateNight2.png|Dressed in formal wear for the second half of Date Night! Garen is not at all shy about using his family's influence to secure a table at an exceedingly high-end restaurant. He dresses the part in military black tie. Category:Males Category:Royals Category:Characters Category:Bisexual Category:Ship of the Month Category:Land of Oz